Child pornography

Abuse platform on the Darknet shut down

Investigators in Germany have shut down a platform with depictions of child abuse on the Darknet after striking a blow against those behind it. The number of users on the site was in the hundreds of thousands, said North Rhine-Westphalia's Interior Minister Hebert Reul. The case was "dizzyingly large".

Searches had already been carried out in six German states in September. The investigators seized extensive evidence. A total of 1517 pieces of evidence such as laptops and cell phones were found. The seized DVDs and video cassettes alone filled 94 moving boxes. The exact amount of data cannot yet be estimated.

On the computer of a single suspect, a data volume of 13.5 terabytes is to be evaluated - that corresponds to around 3.4 million photos, said the minister.

The suspects are two 45 and 56-year-old men from North Rhine-Westphalia, a 43-year-old man from Schleswig-Holstein, a 61-year-old man from Baden-Württemberg, a 62-year-old man from Lower Saxony, a 69-year-old man from Rhineland-Palatinate and a 45-year-old man from Bavaria. Six suspects are in custody.

They are considered to be "leading backers" of the darknet platform. They are being investigated for the gang-like distribution of abuse images. Image and video files showing the sexual abuse of underage girls were distributed on the darknet platform.